The Author: Veena Dinavahi
The Book: The True Happiness Company (Random House, 2025)
The Elevator Pitch: A high-achieving daughter of Indian immigrants, I grew up in an American suburb with a high suicide rate and wound up in a Mormon self-help cult.
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The Rumpus: Where did the idea of your book come from?
Veena Dinavahi: I wrote as a form of therapy, in order to understand how my life had veered so far off course. As a young adult, I had every intention of pursuing a PhD in theoretical physics to become a professor. Before I knew it, I was a college dropout, Mormon convert, and married stay-at-home mom of three, realizing I’d been in a self-help cult. I couldn’t stop asking myself: How? How did that happen?
Rumpus: How long did it take to write the book?
Dinavahi: Parts of the early chapters were taken from my high school diaries, so in some ways it feels like I’ve been working on it my whole life. I wrote the bulk of it in a three-month fugue state and then spent years editing.
Rumpus: Is this the first book you’ve written? If not, what made it the first to be published?
Dinavahi: Unless you count some very terrible attempts from my teenage years, yes, this is the first book I’ve written.
Rumpus: In submitting the book, how many nos did you get before your yes?
Dinavahi: I must’ve received thirty no’s from literary agents. When I stopped querying, my editor found me. She’d found an essay I’d written, cold-emailed me, connected me with an agent, and even then, she wasn’t given the greenlight to say yes. She was ultimately able to acquire it through a different imprint.
Rumpus: Which authors/writers buoyed you along the way? How?
Dinavahi: Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women opened my eyes to certain ways in which my story is nonunique. The way she described grooming at times felt like a word-for-word description of my experience. Understanding that specific techniques had been used against me helped me begin to trust myself and feel sane. Plus, her use of the second person floored me. She transformed my ideas of what nonfiction can be.
Rumpus: How did your book change over the course of working on it?
Dinavahi: Initially, I was fixated on recreating my experience for the reader. I didn’t want the reader to know my cult leader was Mormon until I learned that fact—which is to say, years into our relationship and toward the second half of the book. My brilliant editor challenged me to find a narrative balance that allowed readers to empathize with me but also gave them enough context to understand his motivations. As a result, there are moments of foreshadowing throughout the book.
Rumpus: Before your first book, where has your work been published?
Dinavahi: The Rumpus published my first essay! Also, Pulp Magazine and the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Rumpus: What is the best advice someone gave you about publishing?
Dinavahi: Make your own meaning. It sounds cliché, but I’ve come to accept it as a survival skill. Otherwise, the process can feel like a competition you didn’t know you entered.
Rumpus: Who’s the reader you’re writing to—or tell us about your target audience and how you cultivated or found it?
Dinavahi: Anyone who needs it. I’ve been shocked how many people have described my experience of growing up in a town with a high suicide rate as relatable. I thought people would be fascinated by my story is because it is unusual. Instead, I’m fascinated at how many similarities to their own lives readers are finding.
Rumpus: What is one completely unexpected thing that surprised you about the process of getting your book published?
Dinavahi: My mixed feelings nearing publication! I thought I would be jubilant having accomplished my childhood dream. Instead, I reverted to a self-conscious hermit. Nothing like a nearing publication date to unearth everything you thought you’d already dealt with. I booked myself back into therapy and started planning a launch party to celebrate without the pressure of performance. And I will say [that] meeting other authors to commiserate/swap notes with/draw inspiration from has truly been a delight. Building community has felt like the real accomplishment.
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Author photograph courtesy of Veena Dinavahi
